Developed by Cryptic Studios, City of Villains is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the superhero comic book genre. It is an offshoot of City of Heroes and shares the same virtual world. Instead of playing as heroes, the characters are based on different villain archetypes with their own unique powers. The gameplay involves missions, alone or in teams, against computer controlled characters, as well as player versus player (PvP) combat.

I have been playing City of Villains for the past month off and on. I’m not sure why the superhero comic book genre appeals to me over others, but I believe it has something to do with the characters being in modern times. It is the first MMORPG that I’ve ever played, so I’m a total newbie. For the record, at the time of writing this I’m a level 11 Science Corruptor.

Becoming a Villain

The first step on my nefarious journey was creating my character. The amount of customization to the look of the character is great. There are tons of options for the size, shape, color, accessories and clothing making it very easy to personalize your character. One person I interviewed mentioned that they had created over 400 characters since they began playing. That astounded me, but I am sure that all of those characters looked different. City of Villains doesn’t change your costume based on armor, which is important for character creation as you don’t look like everyone else when you want to use a certain powerset.

When it came to selecting an archetype, I waffled a bit. The game has 5
character types initially: brute, corruptor, dominator, mastermind, and stalker. Each has their strength and weakness and I began to ponder what would suit me best. While the system works well as a balancing act, I think I’d rather start playing before deciding exactly what type of villain I wanted to be. You’re allowed to create a back story for your character but I really wanted to let it unfold as I played the game.

Once you pick your archetype, you get to choose your origin. Once again, there are 5 types to choose from: natural, mutation, magic, science and technology. Your choice allows you special enhancements down the line. I would have rather picked my origin, started the tutorial and then figured out my abilities based on my first few missions. Heroes and villains always have origins and to play through them would be very interesting.

One of the most interesting things that came to light during interviews with other players was the sheer amount of characters each player had. There were many people that played with upwards of 30 characters regularly. Granted, this is a mixture of heroes and villains, but even so it seems like most people that I interviewed would play every character type based on the numbers alone. One interviewee called himself an “altoholic” while another suffered from “altitis.” I’m not sure how immersed I could get in
a game where I was managing so many characters, but the players that were keenly aware of their large amount of characters seemed as much into the game as other players.

The character creation frenzy is most likely due in part by the design decision to stop leveling up at 50. Since a player has no more need to level up, they can create another character with a different set of powers and play through the game again. This leads to the grind, which according to one player stops around level 20. The grind is when you are forced to repeatedly do something in order to accomplish something in the game. I experienced this when I accepted a mission that was in an area that I probably shouldn’t have been in. Just trying to get to the entrance point would get me killed every time. I didn’t want to abort the mission, so I ended up fighting random people at lower levels until I got my experience high enough that I wouldn’t get killed. It was extremely boring.

You’re Now a Villain, Go Do Something Villainous

After breaking out of prison, I was on my own. Being a newbie, I didn’t know if there was etiquette for team missions or basic character interaction. Since I knew no real life person that played the game, I wondered if people would invite me to join a team. It turns out, all you have to do is sit around and wait for someone to invite you which happened a lot when I first started playing. I was very lucky to have a great team leader on my first mission. He acted very much like a leader, telling us to when to
attack and when to rest. Everyone was very courteous, waiting on me to figure out what I was doing and getting to the mission entrance. This was probably the most immersed. I have yet to feel in the game as the team coordinated each move. There was no role playing at all though; it was about gaining experience and moving on to the next mission. Based on player interviews, it seems that while some people role play, most do not. Being a newbie to MMORPGs in general, I found myself following the herd, so I haven’t role played as my character.

The least fun with a team came on a bank heist mission. Supposedly you can get more experience by playing the mission a certain way. We started the mission but were going at it all wrong, so we kept restarting. At that point I felt like I was entering a cheat code and was far removed from the virtual world as there was an active push to manipulate the system.

It was sometime during the umpteenth time of killing snakes that I began to wonder if I was a villain at all. The snakes wanted to be the premiere villains, so my character had to put an end to that. I’m not saying that villain versus villain isn’t something a villain wouldn’t do, but it sure seems like a cop out as far as storylines go. In fact, until you reach a certain level, you can’t even go after “the good guys.” This is where the world loses some appeal for me. All of the heroes are in Paragon City, while
the villains are in the Rogue Isles. If a bunch of villains were all living in the same city, do some of them stop being villains? Who in their right mind would establish a bank in a city full of criminals? Why would non-criminals want to live in a city overrun by criminals?

Non villains do exist in the Rogue Isles. If I’m a bad person, shouldn’t I be able to harass them? If I haven’t proven myself to be evil enough to take on a superhero, at the very least I should be able to harass normal people or steal candy from a baby. I can kill snakes, mobsters, gang members, and evil soldiers, but not normal people. Killing bad people is something heroes should do, not villains.

The harder it is for me to feel evil, the harder it is to become immersed in a game experience where you are supposed to be evil. The majority of examples from other players feeling immersed in the game came from heroes, such as the citizens thanking them for a heroic deed or healing a teammate during a fight. To this extent, the game definitely falls on the side of entertainment over communication. The players are having a great time playing the game, but they aren’t learning anything about the nature of evil.

The Daily Grind

One of the best parts of the game, in my opinion, is that you aren’t required to play for long periods of time. Most of the players I spoke with played daily or weekly, but they did so a few hours at a time. The missions are short enough that you can sit down for an hour and complete a few. Characters are also given access to travel shortcuts very early on. At level 5 you can start flying and by level 14 you can teleport. While some virtual worlds enforce a lengthy travel time, I think it’s appropriate that City
of Villains doesn’t. Superheroes and villains can fly and teleport, if the game didn’t allow that behavior it wouldn’t be true to the genre.

My focus in the game has so far been missions. As I am still at a pretty low level, I feel like I need to level up. I mean, I still can’t teleport. I tried at one point to get into an arena for PvP, but there weren’t enough people. From what other players told me about their habits online, it seems like PvP isn’t a big aspect of the game. The most time anyone I interviewed spent in PvP was around 15 percent. Most people seem focused on missions, and if they socialize they usually do it during that time.

As my character’s level has risen, I seem to get fewer requests to play on teams. I was asked to join a super group, which I excitedly accepted. I had this notion in my head that once joining the group, I’d be required to focus much more of my play within it. It turned out to be more of a placeholder group that could be used to receive all the benefits of a super group, but not really an active organization.

About half of the people interviewed didn’t find playing in groups to be required. While most people do play in groups, it is very easy to play alone. As I have leveled up, I seem to get fewer requests for playing on teams. Perhaps this is because as people level up, they make friends and slow down the random invitations for missions. If higher level players are supposed to seek out and lead teams, the game could do a better job of directing that behavior. A way to direct players towards newbie initiation with missions or specific areas would probably help.

One of the perks that I received after getting to level 11 was the ability to become a malefactor and get my own lackey. This system is very innovative. I can now take another player and bring them up to my level so we can play together without sacrificing rewards or facing low level enemies. It seems like the perfect way to get me to recruit my friends into the game. If they join me, they can get a taste of what it’s like at a
higher level.

When looking at the lackey system, short traveling time, and quick missions it’s pretty clear that City of Villains is trying to broaden their appeal to the mass market. The lackey system speaks to converting your friends into players, no matter their experience level. Short travel times and quick missions make the game feel more like a typical video game and less like a virtual world. There is also a lack of needing to be part of the community. The team missions that I’ve been on just add more people for us to kill. It’s there if you want it but not required. That in itself is a call to gamers that want more entertainment and less focus on community.

The real proof for the mass market argument is death. Dying in City of Villains is annoying, and that’s about it. You die and have the option of going to the hospital, waiting for someone to revive you or if you’re part of a super group you can go back to your base. You don’t lose anything, you merely get an advancement penalty, meaning you have to gain a bit more experience in order to level up. If you can’t fly or teleport yet, you have to walk all the way back to your mission. Every time I die, I just feel like I have to spend a little more time doing something I don’t want to do. It doesn’t stop me from charging in like an idiot or pause to rethink my enhancements, inspirations or strategy. With death being such a trivial issue, it takes me out of the virtual world and makes me feel like I’m playing a game.

The Villainy That Awaits

Judging by interview responses, the most awaited feature in City of Villains is the Mission Architect. Very soon, players will be able to generate their own missions. If someone really wanted to, they could make a mission where you actually could steal candy from a baby. It’s the most in depth player generated mission system to date and it hands the game design over to the players. The developers will still create new content but ultimately the world will be a true collaboration of players and designers. As exciting as it sounds, I can’t help but wonder if it’s just a marketing gimmick.

The original developers, Cryptic Studios, sold the license for City of Heroes and City of Villains to the publisher, NCSoft. The world is no longer anyone’s vision in particular, so there is no one to upset if the player generated missions are terrible and detract from the game. It’s a design choice that I think a lot of designers would have a hard time making. The fact that a publisher is doing something very innovative is probably surprising to people as well. Either way, it’s an important point for virtual world development.

If the launch of the mission architect is a monetary success, other publishers will follow suit. It will be increasingly difficult for designers of virtual worlds to remain true to their vision when everyone can be a designer. How is a franchise like Lord of the Rings going to react when the publisher wants ten thousand people to be able to make a new mission to Mordor? If “player designers” becomes a buzzword like “social networks” has become to the internet, there might not be much of an option to leave out a feature like creating your own missions. Players could entirely ignore any direction given by the initial game designers. It could be wildly creative or horrendous. It will probably be both. On the other hand, if the model works, designers will have another paradigm to incorporate into their vision.

Overall, City of Villains is a fun and innovative game. While the game may not have provided as immersive of an environment as I would have liked, it definitely allowed me to escape from reality for a few hours a day. With extremely rich character creation, players get to develop characters that really speak to a particular story that is fairly open. With the introduction of the mission architect, City of Heroes and City of Villains will become a true playground for heroes and villains of all types that resonate with players on a very personal level.